Decorate A Primitive Food Scale

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Decorate A Primitive Food Scale

Scour flea markets, antique shops and garage sales for yesteryear's treasures.

A primitive food scale with its wear, age and crude charm looks right at home when grouped with a hodgepodge of collectibles or similar roughly hand-hewn elements of the early American period. The simple design associated with primitives or makeshift housewares from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries makes for a relaxed atmosphere in one way or another around the home.

Color and Pattern

Before you group other items on or around your scale, consider the period's colors. Mustard, off white, muted red, Colonial blue and black, for example, would have been popular hues in your scale's day. By sticking to items with washed-out and vintage hues, you'll create a decorative vibe that goes well with the antique. Create the look of age by painting complementary decor to appear old, using milk paints and paint techniques like distressing, or dye new white fabrics or doilies with strongly brewed tea or coffee. Along the same lines, chose period-friendly patterns like stars, stripes, plaid and gingham to work fabrics and features into an early American design. Keep your paintbrush away from your scale, though, when it is a genuine antique.

Storage or Display

Because of its bowl-like element, you could use a hanging or a counter-top scale -- that no longer works as originally intended -- to store various items. On the kitchen counter, a scale might hold an earthenware bowl brimming with fruit. On a primitive dining chair in the entryway, reincarnate the scale as a catchall for keys, mail and such. For the craft room or living room, set it on a side table or shelf to store or display balls of yarn or rag balls -- tied- or sewn-together, rough-torn rag strips, such as was used in the age of predominantly scrimping and saving every usable scrap. For a bedroom, place it on a dresser and fill the bowl with an antique collection of soft-body dolls or primitive wooden clothes pins as makeshift dolls wrapped with antique fabric strips as makeshift dresses.

Floral Arrangement

To add a pretty touch, fit a piece of floral foam in the scale's bowl and cover the foam with dried moss. Then insert stems of silk flowers, from gladiolus to dahlia to azaleas to represent a few popular floral varieties from a couple centuries ago. Add fern or other greenery, and set the scale on an antique-white doily. Surround the floral array with vintage saucers topped with their matching teacups and fill the cups with tiny posies, or encircle the scale with a collection of milk-glass bud vases each with a single-stem flower that suits each vase's size. A rusty-metal milk can full of berry branches could sit nearby on the floor, and an antique floral watercolor could hang above.

Candle Holder

A scale's metal bowl could double as a candle holder. Candles were a main source of light at the beginning of the primitive period, so they go hand in hand with such a quaint treasure. But don't choose just any candles, find handmade beeswax candles for a more convincing look of age. Surround the display with metal stars, copper kettles and old stoneware crocks to add an era-friendly, fire-resistant touch.

Prairie homes

Thursday, October 17, 2013